The two companies are competing so closely in the mobile arena that it's hard to tell them apart at times. So who's got what and which platform offers the most goodies for the average smartphone lover? Here's a breakdown of some of the major features in the iOS and Android universes.

Third-party Apps

In a classic case of "mine's bigger," Apple, Google and the press spend a lot of time talking about how many apps the two stores have. The truth is that each store reached its critical mass a long time ago that ensures it has the third-party apps people want such as Dropbox, Evernote, Angry Birds and Amazon Kindle. There are some gaps, such as Android's lack of a Netflix streaming app, but for the most part each store has its fair share of apps. But in case you were wondering, iTunes has more than 350,000 iPhone apps plus a few thousand more specifically for the iPad. Android had more than 100,000 apps at last count in late 2010, that number has likely gone up dramatically since then. A recent study by security firm Lookout found the Android market was growing at a rate three times faster than the iTunes App Store.

Music and Video

Apple's U.S. iTunes music store has more than 13 million songs and is the dominant player in the U.S. digital music business owning about 70 percent of the market. Google hasn't got into the music game yet, but the search giant has been talking about a cloud-based music service for Android for close to a year. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said Google's music service would be launching soon, according to the Guardian. Google and Motorola have a close working relationship on Android products such as the first Honeycomb-based tablet the Motorola Xoom.

As for video, Apple again has a wide selection of movies and TV shows on iTunes, while Android relies on third-party services such as Blockbuster.

Mobile Hardware

Hardware is easily the biggest differentiator for the two platforms. Apple currently sells just two smartphone models -- the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS -- available on two different carriers in the U.S. There are different storage configurations you can get, but there are only two different base models. Apple also sells the iPod Touch and the iPad.

Each platform is touting the wonders of HTML 5 and the highly functional Web apps the new standard brings. But iOS and Android differ on how to deal with Adobe Flash video -- the most popular format for Web video. Apple refuses to allow Flash functionality to be built into iOS, and is pushing for Web sites to adopt iOS-friendly H.264 video with an mp4 wrapper. Android, meanwhile, supports Adobe Flash 10.1 in Android 2.2 or greater.

But Android's Flash advantage is becoming less of an issue. A recent report by video encoding service Encoding.com said that 78 percent of its customers are now encoding mobile video in iOS-compatible formats.

Goodies

There are tons of miscellaneous goodies offered on the two platforms. Google's Android, for example, offers extensive voice commands for sending text messages, e-mail, placing phone calls, Web browsing, opening apps and search. The iPhone's native voice commands include music playback controls and voice-activated dialing; however, you can use Google's iOS app for voice-based search.

Both platforms recently unveiled in-app subscription plans allowing you to subscribe to your favorite news sources, music and video services or other subscription-based content providers. Android also offers free turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps for Android; while Apple relies on third-party services such as Waze and MapQuest.

Each company is also trying to get into social in a big way, although neither has adoption rates close to social media's big players such as Facebook and Foursquare. Google has Google Buzz for information sharing, Orkut for a Facebook-like experience and a third social push, the oft-rumored Google Me. Apple has Ping, a music-based social network built into iOS and desktop versions of iTunes. The company may also be overhauling MobileMe to include location-based and media-sharing features, according to recent rumors.

There's a lot to love about both platforms, but feature for feature it's often hard to distinguish which platform is superior, especially when you factor in third-party apps.

Slideshows

Google and Microsoft tackle triple value play at Synnex Alliance 2018

This Synnex Alliance roadshow, in association with Google and Microsoft, started with the end-user and worked back to define the notion of value, outlining the lucrative partner opportunities ahead in 2018.

Changing names: the top company rebrands hitting the channel

The past year has seen a flurry of acquisitions, sales, consolidations and business transformations in the local tech sector; ARN takes a look at the company name changes and rebrands across the Australian channel that have resulted from all this activity.

Upcoming tech talent share insights at Emerging Leaders 2018

The channel came together for the third running of the ARN Emerging Leaders Forum in Australia, created to provide a program that identifies, educates and showcases the upcoming talent of the ICT industry.

Copyright 2018 IDG Communications. ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited.